Fireflies and bright stars

It's Monday night now, our third evening on the island of Ometepe and we are in the southern island far into the area with poorer roads that have kept the development at bay a little, over here. The place we are, is on the lake, but with jungle close enough to have howler monkeys in the evening and today we dirt biked, along the coast road, to the "biosphere preserve", then hiked up a few miles high high up the volcano to a lovely tall waterfall. Walking up from the water's edge, we were soon in country a lot like Olinda, upland maui, with tropical trees and some semi open land with a few brahma cows, then up into lovely rainforest. it really is sort of like a small version of maui, with lots of diverse biologic environments.

We arrived here Saturday night and stayed in the port town, which is about ten square blocks; then Sunday, to come around the island from Moyogalpa to the isthum, we joined a 'tour' which put us in an old mini bus with two really nice drivers and some fellow travelers who are Italian brothers in their 60s who plan to open a little restaurant in Moyogalpa next month. We stopped at some of the highlights, including a lovely freshwater pond along the volcano where you can swi and drop in from a ropeswing and eat fresh fish, and also a very cool ex tobacco farm that has a phenomenal archaeologic museum actually -not what you'd expect here, because life now is so hard - there were amazing basalt statues with exquisitely delicate and aesthetic carving and complicated ceramics similar to the nicest in Peru. This was a focus of civilization here on this island for 3500 years it appears.

Anyway... about the bright stars and fireflies. Ometepe is far from any big towns and there is a kind of tradewind blowing, so at night the stars are out an so bright and close. Also walking home tonight along the (black sand and volcanic rock) dirt road, from the local outdoor pool hall / bar called "Margaritas", in pitch black, we saw the tiny sparky lights of fireflies.

If I was going to advise anyone about where to stay here on the island, I would say stay clear of the isthmus. while there was once an apparently beautiful black sand beach stretching north south 2 kilometers, for the past 2 years thanks to global warming changes, the lake is VERY full and about 2 feet higher than usual. and the wind through the gap between the two volcanoes, moves fast. So, the hotels along this beach, now have wild wave whipping up against their volcanic stone breakwaters and you can see the cane roofed umbrellas which were once on dry sand, sticking up haphazardly in about a yard deep water.


These two connected islands are changing fast, and going to change even faster, due to better roads. (and. someone is carving out a landing strip for an airport. The place we are tonight, a little village called Merida, is luckily still a few miles down a very bumpy volcanic road that is so chewed up that the local bus can only go about 10 miles an hour. But, the other side of this volcano, a community called Balgue, is now accessible by a great paved road with cement sidewalks, and so I feel the rural charm there probably will soon be gone. It'll still be beautiful, but manicured beauty. But right now on this side, wandering on a bike or on foot on this slow dirt road where horses move faster than buses, is very peaceful. And you are just as likely to see nothing, or a horse, or an old man ambling along, or 3 kids on a bike, or even a guy on a bike leading his trotting horse and its foal, as you are likely to see a motor vehicle like a motor scooter or old truck.

We've been lucky I think in that it's supposed to be the dry season and I've heard it gets very hot, was very hot last week. but we have had a few days of high clouds and a few rain showers and nice winds so we have been pretty comfortable. You sleep here on a bed covered by a sheet and there is a second sheet to use on top IF you wish and I've needed it. we've always used the fan. with the breezes we have not missed aircon. and, so far nowhere is there hot water to shower with. just cold water and usuallly coming straight at full force from an open pipe, no shower head to lessen the blow. but it is so warm out it's actually ok. I just don't know exactly how clean I'm getting....

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